'Jessabelle' actress finds inspiration in creepy location

By Hunter IngramHunter.Ingram@StarNewsOnline.com

Thursday

Nov 6, 2014 at 10:33 AM

Few dark attics offer comfort to anyone brave enough to venture into one alone.

Few dark attics offer comfort to anyone brave enough to venture into one alone. The creeping shadows, the lingering creaks, the whistle of a brush of wind. But for Australian actress Sarah Snook, there was inspiration to be found in the attic atop Clarendon Plantation. Situated back in a patch of woods across the Cape Fear River, the former rice plantation had never been seen on screen before film crews arrived in the spring of 2012 for the month-long shoot of Lionsgate's horror film "Jessabelle," out Friday in select theaters and through video-on-demand services.The property offered an eerie, isolated beauty, even before production designers arrived.The attic remained untouched by the production, making it the perfect, albeit creepy, escape to which Snook could slip away while crews prepared the shoot two stories below. Greeting anyone who dared venture to the attics' altitude were what Snook described as bizarre paintings and scrolls. "It was creepy up there," Snook said. "But to be there and feel the energy and take that onto set downstairs was helpful."Getting in that headspace was necessary for Snook to tackle the role of Jessabelle, a shattered woman left to pick up the pieces of her life.Following a tragic accident that took the lives of her husband and newborn, and stripped her ability to walk, Jessabelle returns to the home she left behind after he mother tragically passed away. "She's at the end of her tether when we meet her," Snook said. "She has suffered a major loss. She's someone who doesn't really have too much to live for." If the backstory wasn't enough – Snook jokes it could be its own movie – upon returning home, she realizes that something sinister has awaited her return. Mark Webber and local resident David Andrews costar."While being a horror film, it had a dramatic and really interesting arc for the character," she said. "That is always fun because, as an audience member, you can really get involved with that and forget about all the scary things happening and get a real shock when they finally do."Clarendon Plantation, in many ways, is another character in the film, acting as a physical representation of the life Jessabelle fled years before. "It had an unusual vibe to it that I think we were able to use to our advantage," Snook said. "I couldn't have spent the night there though. I would have been much too scared to do that." Rachel Pace, an owner of the property, doesn't see that dark aura in the plantation. "To me, Clarendon is really pretty and not dark and gothic. I guess it is in the eye of the beholder," Pace said. "I actually lived there for a few years as a child. It was home."Pace's grandparents purchased the home in 1945, with its ownership passed down through the generations. In 2012, after becoming interested in renting out the home to film productions, Pace entered Clarendon into the Wilmington Regional Film Commission's locations database for productions.Thanks to movie magic, the plantation will be shrouded in fog and dark shadow in the finished film, a stark contrast from the "beautiful" wedding Pace staged for her daughter on the property last year. Fox's supernatural drama "Sleepy Hollow" also shot on the property last year.After production was complete in Wilmington, the film changed names to "Ghosts" before reverting back to the original moniker. Under that title, the film sat collecting dust on the shelf until it was given an early 2014 release date. It was eventually delayed until Aug. 29, before settling on Nov. 7. The cast wasn't completely sequestered at Clarendon. Joelle Carter, who plays Jessabelle's mother, stayed downtown during her four weeks of filming with her nanny and then 1-year-old daughter."I really loved it," she said of the city. "All the preservation in the town was amazing. I took the horse-drawn buggy tour a few times. My daughter loved it."And it wouldn't have been a spring visit to Wilmington without encountering the Azalea Festival – "beautiful" events Snook could see from her hotel. And she also indulged in a few late-night visits to downtown dance clubs with friends from the set. A part of Wilmington still remains with Snook, even if she doesn't quite know where it is. Before leaving town, she purchased a hat that she wore constantly in the months after production. But in her many moves, the hat has vanished. But don't expect her to give up on it so easily. "I'm going to find it again because I love my Wilmington hat," she said, laughing.

Staff writer Jeff Hidek contributed to this report.

Hunter Ingram: 343-2327On Twitter: @WilmonFilm

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